I was basically quizzing Elder Smith

Elder Smith and Elder Jensen

Hello Everyone!

Well here it is. I am here in a new area! Naperville 1st!! So, the switch was made on Tuesday. Elders Taggert, Figgins, and I drove down to the Naperville Stake center together. Our final ride together. When we got there, they had Elder Figgins and I go out and work together while I waited for my new companion. It was alright. Not much happened there, but it was fun to work together one last time. Then we came back to the Stake Center, and I got with my new comapnion, Elder Smith. No, this is not the Elder Smith that I trained, this is a new one, who will be hitting 6 months after this transfer is over. He is a pretty cool guy. We got together with the YSA Elders in Naperville, Elder Lake (Who I came out with) and Elder Buckway, and we went out and did our shopping together. After all of that, they dropped us of at our apartment, and I tried to prepare a District Meeting, because I have to do that now. I will figure something out. Then, it was out to work. So, the unique thing about this area is that it does not have a car. We are the only full bike area in the mission, mostly because we are in the smallest area. We went and talked to Otakar first, who is from Czechoslovakia. He is a very nice older man, and we got to try some herbal tea with him (just so you know, herbal tea IS ok for Mormons. It is Black Tea and Green Tea that we do not drink). It was some good stuff, and it warmed me up. Then we got to meet with a very missionary minded family, the Patterson's for dinner, and that was a lot of fun. They are a very sarcastic bunch.

Wednesday was alright. I taught my first District Meeting, And I think I did alright. I think that it helped that I did a bunch of "get to know you" stuff and District Accountability (making sure everyone is doing OK in their areas). I also gave a small training on goals, and that went very well. I got my District to come up with some really good goals for themselves. I liked that. After we came back, we went to see Sister Washburn, who is a recent convert that is about to go to the temple next month. That is super exciting! We talked with her for a bit (and got cat hair all over us because her cats are VERY friendly) and them we went out to do a ton of finding. Our last stop of the night was pretty interesting. Basically, this guy talked with us for nearly 40 minutes, trying to convince us that Atheism is the way to go, but he wanted to learn about Mormons (not really. I think he said that to get our attention). When we got back, we found out that my bike was pretty messed up, but we didn't want to deal with it.

Thursday was an interesting day. So, we went out in the morning to do some finding, and my bike was acting a little weird, but it got me to where we were headed, so I didn't think much of it. As we were going back though, my back break just exploded off of my bike, and that was really weird. So, we had to walk for a bit. That wasn't fun. We got it fixed though, but it took some time. After that, was a very long session of Weekly Planning because I was basically quizzing Elder Smith about everything in our area. Oh, and our neighbor came by also. His name is Malik, and he is not technically an investigator, but he is always really good friends with the missionaries, and he plays basketball with us on most Mondays. He is really cool. But, he just came over and told us to clean our kitchen, which needed to be done. Then we did another long, cold bike ride to visit some people, which was nice. We got some cake out of it, so I was happy.

Friday, Elder Smith and I tried out to some online proselyting. It didn't go super well, but I think we just have to put ourselves out there a little more before it really gets moving. Also, that afternoon, we were able to watch President Monson's funeral. That was sad, but it was also a beautiful service, dedicated to his life of love and service. He was an amazing Prophet of God, and he will be missed. After the funeral, we went on a referral hunt, that did no end in success. They gave us a building number, but no street and no apartment number. We went to three different places, and had no success there. Bummer. Then we went to go and see Gregory, an investigator that is stuck in a bed for medical reasons. He is a really happy guy though, and he loves reading the Book of Mormon with us. Then we biked back to our apartment to pick up our dinner from a member, and then immediately left to go to anther lesson with Cynthia. She is a really nice lady, she is just gong through a pretty rough time in her life now. She absolutely love talking with the missionaries though, so that is good. She really feels a positive influence when we are around, and she feels that there is something there. After her lesson, we went home and stuffed our faces, and then went to sleep.

Saturday started off a little rough. We got through planning, and we started our studies, but we were so wiped out from the day before, that both of our heads hit our desks, and we were out. Oops. But, only kind of because we weren't technically allowed out anyway. Once it hits a certain temperature, they ask those with cars to use caution when going out and to not be out to long, and those on bikes to  stay in until it warms up. Problems of a full bike area. Thankfully it warmed up in the afternoon, so we went out to work then. All of our finding didn't produce anything though during that time, except for one potentially trial return appointment in a few weeks. We'll take it! The we went with a member to drop off a Bible to someone, and she was very excited to get it. We also gave her a Book of Mormon, and we will hopefully be getting together in the next week or two to talk. Then we went off into a neighborhood by our apartment to do some finding. Man, there were a ton of huge houses there, and some of them were fun to knock on, even if they wanted nothing to do with us. However, the fun ended when a police office stopped us. Apparently there was someone who really didn't like us, and called the police on us. That is the second time that has happened to me. Thankfully  he was really understanding, and he just told us to go home for the night, so we did. That was good though, because it was really cold outside, and we still had not eaten dinner.

And let me tell you about Sunday. I'ma just say, this ward is HUGE! I have never been in a chapel with so many people. It was pretty cool though to be honest. The members are all pretty friendly, and that is good. After church is where the cool stuff happened. So, we went to a members house for dinner, and their son brought his girlfriend over for the meal. He is about to go on a mission, and she is not a member, and she just wants to know why he is going on a mission, and what this all means. We were happy to help out. That lesson was awesome! She had a ton of great questions, and she understood a lot of what we were teaching her. It was amazing! We will be meeting with her twice more this week, which is awesome!

So, that is about it for me this week. I hope that y'all are having a most excellent time wherever you are at!

Elder Jensen

DUCKS!!!

Squad!

A picture of the Schaumburg Zone from November